February 27, 2025 • 21 mins
We are joined by two powerhouse talents! Norah Fatehi and Jason Derulo's new song, "Snake" is out now! Listen on your free iHeartRadio app.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Fly from the Mercedes Benz Interview lounge. All right, this
room smells delicious.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Gosh.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
So there's a song called snake right recorded by a
great artist, Nora Fetti.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
You say your name. I don't want to screw it up.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
You killed it.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
It was probably by accident.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
So Norah and her producers are thinking, what if we
just added that like a little to it. And so said, well,
why don't you get Jason Derrillo, And of course Nora said, oh, yeah, yeah,
but how do you get Jason Derillo. We can't even
get him to wake up to come into our show,
at least at least on time.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
You're used to this, Come on now.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
No, no, I didn't know you were shady. I love it.
I love it.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
We've been shaving Jason for how many years now, Oh
my god, a long time.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
It's crazy, but I mean, I thank god that he
even showed up to the music video.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Shoot.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
You know, it's insane. But no, all jokes aside, all jesuitside.
He's been showing up for everything.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
You do.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Show up.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, in the early days, when he was trying to
get his career started, he would show up to the
opening of a door.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Woke.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
When he first started, he and I did a karaoke
night together at some CD bar in New York City.
Our feet were stuck to the floor.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You remember, Yeah, I did everything known to man. That's
when I started. I performed on top of pickup trucks.
I mean me and iHeart Yeah, yeah, have me doing
everything I love? That?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Isn't that the best part of the journey though?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, because I remember it's memories, right, So like I
could be like remember when remember when you know, if
everything was all peaches and cream, then you know it's
not as fun.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I agree, And of course was starring in several of
our iHeartRadio jingle Ball concerts where by the end of
his set he was almost totally naked.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
On the stage.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
You had to pay a couple of times. But Nora,
tell us about your story. Where are you originally from?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
So I'm from Toronto, born and raised and my parents
from Moroccan North African. Left Toronto when I was twenty
two to twenty three, went to India to pursue a
Bollywood career with no ties to India nothing. I just
I don't know what hit me that day, and I'm
just like, I'm going to do this and picked up
all my bags, moved to India and started a long,
(02:37):
hustling journey to make it in Bollywood.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
There you go, Well, it just so happens our friend
may that Gandhi is here. She's our co host, great
great granddaughter of Mahama Gandhi.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
You we're telling me yesterday, that is insane.
Speaker 6 (02:50):
It's insane to me too. Wow, I'm just sound impressed.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
He needs to pay our respects, not to say okay
yahong with you.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So we were talking.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
We were talking, we call her Gandhi. We're talking to
Gandhi earlier about you coming in and we said. She said,
you know, I read up on Nora and you said
her heart, yes, is in India.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
You say, oh, yeah, India, of course yeah. Because look, honestly,
before I went to India, I was just Nora from
Jane and Finch. Jane and Finsh is like the hood
in Toronto. And then I moved to India and I
was it was almost like a rebirth. They created Nora
fe to heat and the love and the and the
affection I get from the audience of one point three
(03:29):
billion people is insane. It's something I could have never
dreamt of. And I owe everything to India and the
South Asian community because they've even though I'm not Indian,
They've accepted me like their own. And the amount of
stardom and opportunities that I've unlocked in that country has
been crazy. And I have so much respect for South
(03:52):
Asian community and I'm because of them. I'm here today
because of them. I've been able to do such an
amazing international collaboration with Jason Drulo and crossover back to
the West where I actually started from. So it's it's
the craziest story. Like you hear of people leaving that
side of the world to pursue Hollywood and you know,
the Western industry, you never really hear of someone leaving
(04:12):
this side of the world to go over there and
learning Hindi and embracing a new culture and assimulating. It's
been the most amazing ten years.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
What do you think of that, Kandi, I would like
to know your tricks. I don't have the same love
for me, Yes, I would love to know.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
What you're doing for political reasons or historical reasons.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
No, So it's interesting that they're very accepting of a
Westerner going to India.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Yeah, and a culture's many. You say that, it's funny
to say that because not always. No, there's a lot
of foreigner girls who go in there and they're just
ridiculed and made fun of. And I'll tell you why.
It's because they don't put in the effort to learn
the language, to adapt the traditions and to simulate, which
is what they love. When Jason went for India promo tour,
they fell in love with him because he wanted to
(04:56):
speak in Hindi, he wanted to do the famous Bollywood moves.
He was wearing the India and you know traditional where
he fully embraced the culture. And I think that's what
they love about foreigners, if they embrace and.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Love them, right.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
But if you are an Indian and you leave, yeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Not a lot of love.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I mean leave India. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
So I was born what they call an ABCD, the
American born confused they see. But in India they don't
love that because you know, why, why are you dressing
that way, why are you looking that way? You need
to be more Indians. So that's kind of where I
get to push back.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
But do you get that from Indians in the West.
Or Indians in India.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
In India, oh interestings in the West are very embracing
of oh wow, me being more Western.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
That's crazy because when I think of immigrants in Canada,
I feel like I'm speaking of all brown immigrants, including
you know, even the African immigrants. When they're in Canada
or the US, I feel like they're more extreme, like
they're more oh more either religious or more about their culture,
and they kind of force it down their kids. You
(06:02):
have to dress a certain way, you have to act
a certain way, and then you're up. You have this
really strict upbringing, conservative upbringing, and then you go back
to your country and everyone's chilling, you know. And that's
what happened with us growing up, Like we're Moroccans. We
had a very conservative upbringing, and I'm like, that must
be like this in Morocco. I got older, I went
to Morocco and I'm like, what what is going on here?
(06:22):
Many skirts, chilling, going out, having fun, and you know,
it's insane. So I think it's this desire of wanting
to hold your culture and your roots, so they go
a little too extreme. That's how I feel about NRIs
and you know, Arabs and African families in the West.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
I think it's also really generational because I think a
lot of the hateful comments that I get are from
older Indian people, and the young ones are kind of
cool about things.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
That's for everyone. You've not seen have you seen North
African Arab older generations?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Yeah, Evans, so right, it's across the globe, you know.
I don't know if you go through that.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I mean, I'm Scottish. Yeah, I don't know. We're kind
of boring. I can't even tell you one thing we
have on our food plate.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Jason, your parents are from another country, right, Yeah? Do
you feel the same way?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Any ha hate going on?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
No, I think I've been really embraced by the Haitian culture.
But I'm I'm yeah, I'm Haitian through and through, so
like I might as well have been, you know, brought
up in Haiti because my household, my family, everything is
so tight knit that, I mean, we barely saw the
outside world. That the only outside world we saw. So
when we came went to school and when we came
(07:33):
back home, we was back in Haiti, you know what
I'm saying. So I grew up very, very Haitian.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Yeah, that's that's for most of the families.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yeah, and here you are both today. I don't want
to talk about why you're both here today. So you're
wondering what Nora and Jason Derulo have in common. It's
a song called Snake. It started with Snake.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
It started with Snake.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
So you Nora recorded Snake, and then Jason was added
to Snake and then but you you had never met.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
No, no, no, I mean, look, I followed his career
for a very long time. And the funny story, when
I was in high school, which everyone knows this, I
love to go on stage and perform for all the
school events that'd be like the first one dancing, and
we had this class performance and I performed on what
you Say? And this was in grade leven.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So so when you graduated high school last you were.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
You were also I was the scene and you were like.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
What eight forty three? No, but he was a kid, I.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Was.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You don't believe anything. So what happened.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Was he agreed to do the addition to the song,
and he did it that day and it was in
your mailbox at six am the next day.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
He facetimed me. Actually, Tommy Brown, the producer who suggested
that Jason hop on the track. His reasons for why
he wanted Jason was so apt. He's like, look, he's
a performer, he dances so well, he's got an amazing voice,
and he understands the global marketing.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
He has everything.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
He's right, and I was super excited. I didn't think
he would agree because I didn't he doesn't know me right,
so but he agreed, which was amazing. And then they
FaceTime me at six o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
How do you say?
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yeah, He's like, listen, hey, how are you Like? Hey?
He's like, okay, I need a Hindi word for like baby,
like a cute version of that. So I kind of
linked them up with that. And then I'm watching them
record this track.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I'm like, oh, so you watched him on face face time.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Yeah, like tolm me at FaceTime. He's like, look, it's happening.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That must have been such a surreal icanic panic.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Yeah, iconic, because I'm like, now I need to start
planning the music video and he needs to be out
of this world.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
And the video itself is a work of art.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
It's beautiful, and of course it has all the all
of the colors, all of the movement.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Yeah, shout out to my Moroccan team, the hour director.
That was his vision. Wow, which word did you guys pick?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
John?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Okay again.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Which means baby, yeah, life, I love?
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
What would be the the English equivalent of John?
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Like my love, my life, my baby babes, little brad babes?
Have you be an Arabic?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
So do you see you two actually hitting a stage
together anywhere at any time at any music festival or
I don't know whatever. Do you do you ever see
yourself performing on the stage together?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, we're actually supposed to perform.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
We were supposed to perform, but I didn't get anyways.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I talk about Daniel needs to know.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Now we gotta know.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I mean just started.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I'm literally waiting for my one. It's still didn't com trump.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Can you hear me? It was really a political thing.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
No, no, just probably taking time to get here. Do
you guys not like Canadians or something?
Speaker 7 (11:04):
I don't know. I haven't loved Canadians. I can't wait
for you to be our next state. We love Canada,
no hate here?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Can you give me my one?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I have no connection there?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I mean I thought Canada was a shoe, and honestly,
I thought, I was like, like, what, what's taking so long?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I don't get it.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I just feel like Trump does not want me to
do my thing here.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I can get your puppy.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
I want visa because we need to like go on
stage and show you what we could do.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Okay, well we need to make I think that would
be great, but unfortunately it's going to be a costly
production because if you stay, if you stick it up
to the standards of the video for Snake, that's gonna
be a lot of staging, a lot of lighting. I
see a lot of people, a lot of people by
the way, if you're just turning us on. Uh, Nora
is here with Jason Drulo. The song is Snake that
(12:02):
Nora did originally and Jason was added to it and
now it's what it is now. And I'm trying to
get them to work together on the stage, and there's
his pushbacks.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
But no, I think it's going to happen. I have
a feeling and when you see us on stage, you're
just going to.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Be like, if we can get Ba here with you, surely, Yeah,
he got his one visa.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, because he's he's doing a TV show called his
Voice Voice, He got one, It's coming, you'll get it.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Maybe you should stop talking about it on a radio station.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
You never know, maybe probably help help maybe, Like someone
from immigration was like, oh, it's no yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Well here you are United States federally licensed radio station.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
They're listening at all moments.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
There are other ways you could go on ninety day
and get the K one.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Listen, And I was thinking I might just do it.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Do not do that?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Why it's funny, it's.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
A lot of good ideas.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Scary just pointed out something. Jason's catalog now has the
songs talk Dirty, Wiggle, Swallow and Snake.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah, the title and the order in which they.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Are and solo. If that's really about what it's about,
I put writing so right.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I don't get it is there's no animals enough. I
don't get it.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Snake do not.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Like.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I don't get the bit.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
It's early for me early. I don't love it now.
I tell you, Jason.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
As we said earlier, we've had this relationship with Jason
for so many years, and there are so many artists
that we interviewed. It's easy to say, we watched them
start as good artists and turned into two fantastic artists.
Jason was fantastic.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah from the gig.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Pretend you're not here, Jason, you you.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Were Anders Flowers.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
He's been nice since day one, and he stayed nice
even though he's you know, huge, don't listen, and he's
still so sweet nice.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
That smells great too.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
That's important, and you want to smell good.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
But it's just you. You are truly as incredible. You
were incredible then, as as is you are now as
you are. I can't talk. Maybe I should go to
another country. I speak English anyway, But to be able
to see two I'm gonna call you something. You may
not like this, a force to see two forces, to
(14:38):
global force in the global force together.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Not like that? That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Well the name force me.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
A force like the force.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I love that the two.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Of you together doing work would be a treat for
the eyes and for the ears. I'd like to I'd
like to hear and see that. Just say it. Not
that I matter. I'm just a white guy from Dallas.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Thank you so much, thank you, And it's been it's
been an incredible journey. Honestly, I was, you know, in
the creation process of the music video specifically, I was like,
people aren't doing it like this around the world anymore.
And the amount of emphasis, the meticulousness, the budget, the
(15:17):
amount of days, the sacrifices, people aren't doing it at
that level. And when we released the video and it
just shot up to one hundred million in a very
short period of time. That's a testament to the art
being special, you know. And I feel like with social media,
we've kind of stopped putting emphasis on music videos, right,
(15:40):
and we're putting so much emphasis on socials and we
got to get back to the creative. We got to
get back to the art, the art form. And you know,
this is a true testament to that. That's the Snake
video is one d per testament to that.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Wow, one one hundred and twelve million views on YouTube,
I believe. Yeah, thinking about the video, the magic of videos,
I remember nineteen eighty something when MTV first came on
and started pushing videos that they spent maybe twelve dollars
on a video. Back then, they were just what clamation exactly,
And now you look to see a video like Snake
(16:16):
and many other videos that are out but not a
lot where you actually see creativity and you see flourishing
imagination and art and aesthetics. That's what they should be. Otherwise,
don't do them. Yeah, I mean, otherwise they're gonna be
just like who cares?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I agree. I agree and said it's a package. I
feel like when it comes to artistry or you know,
music and dance, you can't do one and leave the other.
And I think now a lot of artists are just
putting out music and it's about I'll just give the
fans a visualizer and that's it, or just give them
a lyrical video and that's it. And you know, you
have to give your fans everything that they pay so
(16:52):
much money for you. They'd buy your tickets, your merge,
they support you. So the least we can do is,
you know, go all out and push the boundaries. And
if you if you're not a dancer, you know, you
learn dance and try your best. If you're not a
great stage performer, you work on that. If you're not
a great vocalist, you work on that. So I feel
like it's a process that we have to embrace his artists.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
You know, Jason came into this business as an incredible
with incredible vocal talent, but I had to teach him
his moves.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
He was telling me yesterday he was a stiff.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
He just couldn't move yeah Jazz.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
When we were rehearsing for a snake and I showed
him that that hook step the snake move, He's like,
oh my God, always taught me these.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
He picked it up like that.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
When it comes to the videos and the stuff that
you guys are doing, do you do things differently knowing
that you're now catering to the Indian audience as well.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
So you know what, when it comes to videos, it's
already like Baldywood and the fact that we have music
in the movies, we anyways focus a lot on visuals
and choreograph, fee and aesthetic and production. So I took
that school of thought and brought it to my independent
music as a singer, and then when I'm doing my
(18:09):
English music as a singer, I make sure production is high, visuals, choreography,
everything is at the standard of what we do in Bollywood.
What I think about is what can I bring to
the table which can cater not just to the South
Asian community but also my Middle Eastern and North African
fan base. So I try to inject a little bit
(18:31):
in the choreography or in the screenplay in terms of
like chemistry and expression. What's so cool about Snake is
not only are we dancing, but we have a chemistry
as a hero and a heroine type of setup, which
we would do in Bollywood. So I kind of brought
that over into Snake and we played with expression and
(18:52):
in order to kind of inject a little bit of
Middle Eastern and North Africa, we used belly dance as
the choreography. A lot of the clothing was done by
my national Whole Threat, a very famous wildwood designer.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Wait.
Speaker 6 (19:02):
So Jason is wearing clothing weirdly.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Very nice in the entrance of the music video Halter
top No, it's a lovely Indian silhouette, you know, nice jacket,
embroidery jacket, and then he goes into wearing Moroccan stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
So I could see you rock down every day.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
He looked like a sultan, like literally.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Yeah, I love There is one thing you know, hear
it when I'm gonna play Snake.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
In a second.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
At the very end of Snake, you hear a zipper
is that Jason's zipper down.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We've heard a lot of stuff from Jason from never
the zipper.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
One of the zipper is actually the signature of Parker,
who we call leather Jacket, who actually made the beat
of Snake. That's his signature.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
All right, Well, my mind went to the cutter.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
So look, if if you're just turning us on and
you missed this, this incredible conversation with Jason Drello and
Nora Fete, uh, make sure you listen to us Elvis
dren on demand wherever you get your podcast, because this
has been an incredible time spent meeting our new best
friend and of course our good old best friend.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
It's not old, but he's an old best friend. Oh damn, man, morning,
I just said, I just said. I just said school too. Yeah,
I was.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I was in middle school.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
I said, our old friend younger than me.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I'm sorry I said our old friend, but not old friends.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
I was trying to back out of that awful insult. Anyway, Uh, Snake,
of course is the single. Nora, thank you so much
for coming in meeting us and Jason. You know you
always have a seat at this table and now you
both do I appreciate I'm gonna push the snake. Ladies
and gentlemen snake
Fly from the Mercedes Benz Interview lounge. All right, this
room smells delicious.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Gosh.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
So there's a song called snake right recorded by a
great artist, Nora Fetti.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
You say your name. I don't want to screw it up.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
You killed it.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
It was probably by accident.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
So Norah and her producers are thinking, what if we
just added that like a little to it. And so said, well,
why don't you get Jason Derrillo, And of course Nora said, oh, yeah, yeah,
but how do you get Jason Derillo. We can't even
get him to wake up to come into our show,
at least at least on time.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
You're used to this, Come on now.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
No, no, I didn't know you were shady. I love it.
I love it.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
We've been shaving Jason for how many years now, Oh
my god, a long time.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
It's crazy, but I mean, I thank god that he
even showed up to the music video.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Shoot.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
You know, it's insane. But no, all jokes aside, all jesuitside.
He's been showing up for everything.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
You do.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Show up.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, in the early days, when he was trying to
get his career started, he would show up to the
opening of a door.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Woke.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
When he first started, he and I did a karaoke
night together at some CD bar in New York City.
Our feet were stuck to the floor.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You remember, Yeah, I did everything known to man. That's
when I started. I performed on top of pickup trucks.
I mean me and iHeart Yeah, yeah, have me doing
everything I love? That?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Isn't that the best part of the journey though?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, because I remember it's memories, right, So like I
could be like remember when remember when you know, if
everything was all peaches and cream, then you know it's
not as fun.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I agree, And of course was starring in several of
our iHeartRadio jingle Ball concerts where by the end of
his set he was almost totally naked.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
On the stage.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
You had to pay a couple of times. But Nora,
tell us about your story. Where are you originally from?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
So I'm from Toronto, born and raised and my parents
from Moroccan North African. Left Toronto when I was twenty
two to twenty three, went to India to pursue a
Bollywood career with no ties to India nothing. I just
I don't know what hit me that day, and I'm
just like, I'm going to do this and picked up
all my bags, moved to India and started a long,
(02:37):
hustling journey to make it in Bollywood.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
There you go, Well, it just so happens our friend
may that Gandhi is here. She's our co host, great
great granddaughter of Mahama Gandhi.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
You we're telling me yesterday, that is insane.
Speaker 6 (02:50):
It's insane to me too. Wow, I'm just sound impressed.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
He needs to pay our respects, not to say okay
yahong with you.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So we were talking.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
We were talking, we call her Gandhi. We're talking to
Gandhi earlier about you coming in and we said. She said,
you know, I read up on Nora and you said
her heart, yes, is in India.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
You say, oh, yeah, India, of course yeah. Because look, honestly,
before I went to India, I was just Nora from
Jane and Finch. Jane and Finsh is like the hood
in Toronto. And then I moved to India and I
was it was almost like a rebirth. They created Nora
fe to heat and the love and the and the
affection I get from the audience of one point three
(03:29):
billion people is insane. It's something I could have never
dreamt of. And I owe everything to India and the
South Asian community because they've even though I'm not Indian,
They've accepted me like their own. And the amount of
stardom and opportunities that I've unlocked in that country has
been crazy. And I have so much respect for South
(03:52):
Asian community and I'm because of them. I'm here today
because of them. I've been able to do such an
amazing international collaboration with Jason Drulo and crossover back to
the West where I actually started from. So it's it's
the craziest story. Like you hear of people leaving that
side of the world to pursue Hollywood and you know,
the Western industry, you never really hear of someone leaving
(04:12):
this side of the world to go over there and
learning Hindi and embracing a new culture and assimulating. It's
been the most amazing ten years.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
What do you think of that, Kandi, I would like
to know your tricks. I don't have the same love
for me, Yes, I would love to know.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
What you're doing for political reasons or historical reasons.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
No, So it's interesting that they're very accepting of a
Westerner going to India.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Yeah, and a culture's many. You say that, it's funny
to say that because not always. No, there's a lot
of foreigner girls who go in there and they're just
ridiculed and made fun of. And I'll tell you why.
It's because they don't put in the effort to learn
the language, to adapt the traditions and to simulate, which
is what they love. When Jason went for India promo tour,
they fell in love with him because he wanted to
(04:56):
speak in Hindi, he wanted to do the famous Bollywood moves.
He was wearing the India and you know traditional where
he fully embraced the culture. And I think that's what
they love about foreigners, if they embrace and.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Love them, right.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
But if you are an Indian and you leave, yeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Not a lot of love.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I mean leave India. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
So I was born what they call an ABCD, the
American born confused they see. But in India they don't
love that because you know, why, why are you dressing
that way, why are you looking that way? You need
to be more Indians. So that's kind of where I
get to push back.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
But do you get that from Indians in the West.
Or Indians in India.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
In India, oh interestings in the West are very embracing
of oh wow, me being more Western.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
That's crazy because when I think of immigrants in Canada,
I feel like I'm speaking of all brown immigrants, including
you know, even the African immigrants. When they're in Canada
or the US, I feel like they're more extreme, like
they're more oh more either religious or more about their culture,
and they kind of force it down their kids. You
(06:02):
have to dress a certain way, you have to act
a certain way, and then you're up. You have this
really strict upbringing, conservative upbringing, and then you go back
to your country and everyone's chilling, you know. And that's
what happened with us growing up, Like we're Moroccans. We
had a very conservative upbringing, and I'm like, that must
be like this in Morocco. I got older, I went
to Morocco and I'm like, what what is going on here?
(06:22):
Many skirts, chilling, going out, having fun, and you know,
it's insane. So I think it's this desire of wanting
to hold your culture and your roots, so they go
a little too extreme. That's how I feel about NRIs
and you know, Arabs and African families in the West.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
I think it's also really generational because I think a
lot of the hateful comments that I get are from
older Indian people, and the young ones are kind of
cool about things.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
That's for everyone. You've not seen have you seen North
African Arab older generations?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Yeah, Evans, so right, it's across the globe, you know.
I don't know if you go through that.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I mean, I'm Scottish. Yeah, I don't know. We're kind
of boring. I can't even tell you one thing we
have on our food plate.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Jason, your parents are from another country, right, Yeah? Do
you feel the same way?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Any ha hate going on?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
No, I think I've been really embraced by the Haitian culture.
But I'm I'm yeah, I'm Haitian through and through, so
like I might as well have been, you know, brought
up in Haiti because my household, my family, everything is
so tight knit that, I mean, we barely saw the
outside world. That the only outside world we saw. So
when we came went to school and when we came
(07:33):
back home, we was back in Haiti, you know what
I'm saying. So I grew up very, very Haitian.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Yeah, that's that's for most of the families.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yeah, and here you are both today. I don't want
to talk about why you're both here today. So you're
wondering what Nora and Jason Derulo have in common. It's
a song called Snake. It started with Snake.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
It started with Snake.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
So you Nora recorded Snake, and then Jason was added
to Snake and then but you you had never met.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
No, no, no, I mean, look, I followed his career
for a very long time. And the funny story, when
I was in high school, which everyone knows this, I
love to go on stage and perform for all the
school events that'd be like the first one dancing, and
we had this class performance and I performed on what
you Say? And this was in grade leven.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So so when you graduated high school last you were.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
You were also I was the scene and you were like.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
What eight forty three? No, but he was a kid, I.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Was.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You don't believe anything. So what happened.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Was he agreed to do the addition to the song,
and he did it that day and it was in
your mailbox at six am the next day.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
He facetimed me. Actually, Tommy Brown, the producer who suggested
that Jason hop on the track. His reasons for why
he wanted Jason was so apt. He's like, look, he's
a performer, he dances so well, he's got an amazing voice,
and he understands the global marketing.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
He has everything.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
He's right, and I was super excited. I didn't think
he would agree because I didn't he doesn't know me right,
so but he agreed, which was amazing. And then they
FaceTime me at six o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
How do you say?
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yeah, He's like, listen, hey, how are you Like? Hey?
He's like, okay, I need a Hindi word for like baby,
like a cute version of that. So I kind of
linked them up with that. And then I'm watching them
record this track.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I'm like, oh, so you watched him on face face time.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Yeah, like tolm me at FaceTime. He's like, look, it's happening.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That must have been such a surreal icanic panic.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Yeah, iconic, because I'm like, now I need to start
planning the music video and he needs to be out
of this world.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
And the video itself is a work of art.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
It's beautiful, and of course it has all the all
of the colors, all of the movement.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Yeah, shout out to my Moroccan team, the hour director.
That was his vision. Wow, which word did you guys pick?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
John?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Okay again.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Which means baby, yeah, life, I love?
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
What would be the the English equivalent of John?
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Like my love, my life, my baby babes, little brad babes?
Have you be an Arabic?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
So do you see you two actually hitting a stage
together anywhere at any time at any music festival or
I don't know whatever. Do you do you ever see
yourself performing on the stage together?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, we're actually supposed to perform.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
We were supposed to perform, but I didn't get anyways.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I talk about Daniel needs to know.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Now we gotta know.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I mean just started.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I'm literally waiting for my one. It's still didn't com trump.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Can you hear me? It was really a political thing.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
No, no, just probably taking time to get here. Do
you guys not like Canadians or something?
Speaker 7 (11:04):
I don't know. I haven't loved Canadians. I can't wait
for you to be our next state. We love Canada,
no hate here?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Can you give me my one?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I have no connection there?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I mean I thought Canada was a shoe, and honestly,
I thought, I was like, like, what, what's taking so long?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I don't get it.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I just feel like Trump does not want me to
do my thing here.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I can get your puppy.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
I want visa because we need to like go on
stage and show you what we could do.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Okay, well we need to make I think that would
be great, but unfortunately it's going to be a costly
production because if you stay, if you stick it up
to the standards of the video for Snake, that's gonna
be a lot of staging, a lot of lighting. I
see a lot of people, a lot of people by
the way, if you're just turning us on. Uh, Nora
is here with Jason Drulo. The song is Snake that
(12:02):
Nora did originally and Jason was added to it and
now it's what it is now. And I'm trying to
get them to work together on the stage, and there's
his pushbacks.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
But no, I think it's going to happen. I have
a feeling and when you see us on stage, you're
just going to.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Be like, if we can get Ba here with you, surely, Yeah,
he got his one visa.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, because he's he's doing a TV show called his
Voice Voice, He got one, It's coming, you'll get it.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Maybe you should stop talking about it on a radio station.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
You never know, maybe probably help help maybe, Like someone
from immigration was like, oh, it's no yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Well here you are United States federally licensed radio station.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
They're listening at all moments.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
There are other ways you could go on ninety day
and get the K one.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Listen, And I was thinking I might just do it.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Do not do that?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Why it's funny, it's.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
A lot of good ideas.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Scary just pointed out something. Jason's catalog now has the
songs talk Dirty, Wiggle, Swallow and Snake.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah, the title and the order in which they.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Are and solo. If that's really about what it's about,
I put writing so right.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I don't get it is there's no animals enough. I
don't get it.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Snake do not.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Like.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I don't get the bit.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
It's early for me early. I don't love it now.
I tell you, Jason.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
As we said earlier, we've had this relationship with Jason
for so many years, and there are so many artists
that we interviewed. It's easy to say, we watched them
start as good artists and turned into two fantastic artists.
Jason was fantastic.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah from the gig.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Pretend you're not here, Jason, you you.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Were Anders Flowers.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
He's been nice since day one, and he stayed nice
even though he's you know, huge, don't listen, and he's
still so sweet nice.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
That smells great too.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
That's important, and you want to smell good.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
But it's just you. You are truly as incredible. You
were incredible then, as as is you are now as
you are. I can't talk. Maybe I should go to
another country. I speak English anyway, But to be able
to see two I'm gonna call you something. You may
not like this, a force to see two forces, to
(14:38):
global force in the global force together.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Not like that? That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Well the name force me.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
A force like the force.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I love that the two.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Of you together doing work would be a treat for
the eyes and for the ears. I'd like to I'd
like to hear and see that. Just say it. Not
that I matter. I'm just a white guy from Dallas.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Thank you so much, thank you, And it's been it's
been an incredible journey. Honestly, I was, you know, in
the creation process of the music video specifically, I was like,
people aren't doing it like this around the world anymore.
And the amount of emphasis, the meticulousness, the budget, the
(15:17):
amount of days, the sacrifices, people aren't doing it at
that level. And when we released the video and it
just shot up to one hundred million in a very
short period of time. That's a testament to the art
being special, you know. And I feel like with social media,
we've kind of stopped putting emphasis on music videos, right,
(15:40):
and we're putting so much emphasis on socials and we
got to get back to the creative. We got to
get back to the art, the art form. And you know,
this is a true testament to that. That's the Snake
video is one d per testament to that.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Wow, one one hundred and twelve million views on YouTube,
I believe. Yeah, thinking about the video, the magic of videos,
I remember nineteen eighty something when MTV first came on
and started pushing videos that they spent maybe twelve dollars
on a video. Back then, they were just what clamation exactly,
And now you look to see a video like Snake
(16:16):
and many other videos that are out but not a
lot where you actually see creativity and you see flourishing
imagination and art and aesthetics. That's what they should be. Otherwise,
don't do them. Yeah, I mean, otherwise they're gonna be
just like who cares?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I agree. I agree and said it's a package. I
feel like when it comes to artistry or you know,
music and dance, you can't do one and leave the other.
And I think now a lot of artists are just
putting out music and it's about I'll just give the
fans a visualizer and that's it, or just give them
a lyrical video and that's it. And you know, you
have to give your fans everything that they pay so
(16:52):
much money for you. They'd buy your tickets, your merge,
they support you. So the least we can do is,
you know, go all out and push the boundaries. And
if you if you're not a dancer, you know, you
learn dance and try your best. If you're not a
great stage performer, you work on that. If you're not
a great vocalist, you work on that. So I feel
like it's a process that we have to embrace his artists.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
You know, Jason came into this business as an incredible
with incredible vocal talent, but I had to teach him
his moves.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
He was telling me yesterday he was a stiff.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
He just couldn't move yeah Jazz.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
When we were rehearsing for a snake and I showed
him that that hook step the snake move, He's like,
oh my God, always taught me these.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
He picked it up like that.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
When it comes to the videos and the stuff that
you guys are doing, do you do things differently knowing
that you're now catering to the Indian audience as well.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
So you know what, when it comes to videos, it's
already like Baldywood and the fact that we have music
in the movies, we anyways focus a lot on visuals
and choreograph, fee and aesthetic and production. So I took
that school of thought and brought it to my independent
music as a singer, and then when I'm doing my
(18:09):
English music as a singer, I make sure production is high, visuals, choreography,
everything is at the standard of what we do in Bollywood.
What I think about is what can I bring to
the table which can cater not just to the South
Asian community but also my Middle Eastern and North African
fan base. So I try to inject a little bit
(18:31):
in the choreography or in the screenplay in terms of
like chemistry and expression. What's so cool about Snake is
not only are we dancing, but we have a chemistry
as a hero and a heroine type of setup, which
we would do in Bollywood. So I kind of brought
that over into Snake and we played with expression and
(18:52):
in order to kind of inject a little bit of
Middle Eastern and North Africa, we used belly dance as
the choreography. A lot of the clothing was done by
my national Whole Threat, a very famous wildwood designer.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Wait.
Speaker 6 (19:02):
So Jason is wearing clothing weirdly.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Very nice in the entrance of the music video Halter
top No, it's a lovely Indian silhouette, you know, nice jacket,
embroidery jacket, and then he goes into wearing Moroccan stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
So I could see you rock down every day.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
He looked like a sultan, like literally.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Yeah, I love There is one thing you know, hear
it when I'm gonna play Snake.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
In a second.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
At the very end of Snake, you hear a zipper
is that Jason's zipper down.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We've heard a lot of stuff from Jason from never
the zipper.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
One of the zipper is actually the signature of Parker,
who we call leather Jacket, who actually made the beat
of Snake. That's his signature.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
All right, Well, my mind went to the cutter.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
So look, if if you're just turning us on and
you missed this, this incredible conversation with Jason Drello and
Nora Fete, uh, make sure you listen to us Elvis
dren on demand wherever you get your podcast, because this
has been an incredible time spent meeting our new best
friend and of course our good old best friend.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
It's not old, but he's an old best friend. Oh damn, man, morning,
I just said, I just said. I just said school too. Yeah,
I was.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I was in middle school.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
I said, our old friend younger than me.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I'm sorry I said our old friend, but not old friends.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
I was trying to back out of that awful insult. Anyway, Uh, Snake,
of course is the single. Nora, thank you so much
for coming in meeting us and Jason. You know you
always have a seat at this table and now you
both do I appreciate I'm gonna push the snake. Ladies
and gentlemen snake
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